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U.S. Has a Chance to Stop the Islamic State
(Washington Post) Joseph I. Lieberman - It would be wrong to view President Obama's decision to order airstrikes against the Islamic State in Iraq and to give weapons to Kurdish fighters as a continuation of the war in Iraq. It is more accurate to see it as a mission to prevent a repetition of the war in Afghanistan. We have a chance to stop the Islamic State before it creates a sanctuary in Iraq and Syria that it could use to strike the U.S., just as al-Qaeda used its sanctuary in Afghanistan to kill thousands of Americans on Sept. 11, 2001. The shockingly rapid and violent spread of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, its declaration of an extremist Islamist caliphate and the stream of explicit threats it has made against the U.S. demonstrate that it is a clear and present danger to us and our allies. In a world ablaze with conflict and bloodshed, the threats we face from violent Islamist extremism remain the most dangerous. Former Sen. Lieberman (I-Conn.) is co-chairman of the American Internationalism Project at the American Enterprise Institute.